Coleman, Charles

Dublin, Ireland; upholsterer and blanket manufacturer (fl.1733-d.1759)

Son of Robert Coleman, made Freeman of the City of Dublin by patrimony as upholsterer, Midsummer 1733. In 1738 and 1741 he was elected onto the Dublin Common Council for the Upholders' Guild.

Married Mary Falkiner, Parish of St Andrew's, 3 October 1738 [Parish Records Society of Dublin vol. XI, p. 26].

Recorded at Hog Hill near the Round Church 1735-50; Suffolk Street 1750-8 (in partnership with Andrew Barnwell 1750-4). In 1742 Charles Coleman valued Mrs Isabella Balfour's goods at her house in St Stephen's Green [National Library of Ireland, MSS 9534 f. 1]. He also did a separate valuation of goods kept for the heir, Billy Balfour, 4 March 1742 [NLI MSS 10279].

In 1744 he did work for Trinity College Dublin [TCD MSS P/4/48, 14 & 15]. Coleman's bill, dated 1 March 1750, survives for the Dublin house of Thomas Newenham of Coolmore, M.P. for Cork. The account totalled £579 12s ld. It is transcribed in Glin & Peill (2007), Appendix II.

Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, 9-12 February 1754: ‘Charles Coleman, Upholsterer, intending on quit business the 25th of March next, will in the mean time sell at prime cost his stock in trade viz all sorts of chairs, couches and beds, English Nassau and worsted damask harateens and marienes, English blankets, variety of quilts, Turkey and Muskets carpets from 3 to 9 yards long, English carpets, Scotch and Irish carpeting, Indian cabinets and gilt leather screens, tapestry for chair-seats and settees, a parcel of London nails double burnished, some mahogany planks and boards, oak boards and scantling, with several other articles too tedious to mention. All who buy to sell again, shall have six months credit giving their notes. N.B. His house consisting of five rooms on a floor with coach house and stables and a lot of ground adjoining and fronting Suffolk Street’. Coleman’s death was recorded in Pue’s Occurrences or Impartial Occurrence, 19-22 May 1759: ‘Death: In Leinster-street, suddenly of a fit of vomiting, Mr Charles Coleman, formerly an eminent Upholsterer in this city, but having acquired a handsome fortune with a very fine character, had retired from business for some years past’.

Source: Glin & Peill, Irish Furniture (2007), pp. 94 & 272.